The past year saw Coastal redouble our efforts to support residents and communities through the ongoing cost of living crisis, whilst also focusing on housing supply and key services that residents have indicated matter most to them, such as dealing with anti-social behaviour.
Whilst reducing from the levels seen in 2022/23, inflation remained well above the Bank of England target in 2023/24, resulting in continued challenges for residential and commercial customers alike.
Demand for our services remained very high last year, due to several factors including continued unaffordability in the private rental sector and high levels of competition for the affordable private rental homes that do exist. This is common across the sector and we know that partner organisations and the local authorities Coastal works with are experiencing this too.
A desire to be more ambitious in meeting demand for housing need, in improving the performance of existing stock and in the scope of our impact on communities and local economies where we work, were all significant drivers for merger discussions with RHA Wales – a community landlord working in Rhondda Cynon Taf. Following initial discussions in Spring 2023, later in the year we announced our intention to progress a merger by early 2025 and work continues on this apace.
At the end of 2023 we commissioned Knowledge Partnership to complete our bi-annual resident satisfaction survey. The survey provides valuable insights into residents’ satisfaction with quality of homes, our repairs and maintenance services, value for money and how well we listen to them. These insights are vital in ensuring we’re delivering quality services and homes that residents feel safe and happy living in.
We’re delighted the results show we’re continuing to provide good quality services and homes, and are particularly pleased to be bucking the national trend by increasing our resident satisfaction with repairs and maintenance. However, we recognise there’s always room for improvement and will use the survey findings to consider if there are things we can do differently to improve.
Data from the Office of National Statistics shows that antisocial behaviour across the UK increased significantly during the coronavirus pandemic and, whilst decreasing from their peak, levels have remained high. This national trend was mirrored in the communities we serve and resulted in us giving the issue considerable focus, through an in-depth antisocial behaviour intervention. As a result of that intervention, which included listening to resident feedback on how we deal with antisocial behaviour cases, Coastal launched a new Community Safety Team in September 2023, dedicated to working on anti-social behaviour, safeguarding and tackling domestic abuse in Coastal communities. With a commitment to strong partnership working with other agencies, such as the police and the local authorities, the team of four supports residents affected by antisocial behaviour, works proactively to build and maintain safe and strong communities, and promotes community cohesion.
Back in April 2022, Coastal began a study of our rent management system to improve performance and rent collection. This led to the development of a comprehensive Rent Management Policy and the creation of a specialist Rent Management Team, both implemented in September 2023. The team offer a more dedicated and specialised service for residents in relation to their rent, including help with income maximisation and managing arrears. It has already had significant positive impacts, both for residents and on our rental income, and will shortly begin focusing on historical debt too.
Coastal is a progressive organisation and seeks out partnerships with organisations that share our values and vision for a fairer society. In 2019, we partnered with Llamau on an innovative pilot that applied the principles of Housing First to a cohort of young people who have faced challenges that might include experience of the care or criminal justice systems, adverse childhood experiences or issues with substance misuse and mental ill health.
A key principle in Housing First is that housing is separated from support; unlike more traditional forms of supported housing, residents are not at any threat of homelessness simply for not engaging with support services.
Coastal was the only landlord in the Swansea area that provided homes for the Welsh Government-funded pilot, housing 10 young people in the period from March 2020 to October 2022. There were successes and plenty of learning for us in the duration of the project, which completed its monitoring and evaluation phase in late 2023 and was featured in the Welsh Housing Quarterly in January this year.
Housing supply remains a key area of focus for Coastal and this is reflected in the work our development team is doing to increase the supply of available homes, across a range of tenures and locations. During the year we delivered 38 more homes for social rent to Coastal’s portfolio along with an additional 12 homes for low-cost sale through our Pennant Homes subsidiary.
Coastal has particular expertise in city and town centre regeneration, and Swansea High Street’s Urban Village is our flagship development for this work. Following a number of strategic acquisitions on High Street last year, we are delighted to be moving forward with the third phase of the Urban Village project, subject to planning consent. If successful, this scheme will deliver two new additions to the Urban Village portfolio: a new two-storey commercial building with shipping container-style units and a six-storey housing development on Kings Lane, which connects High Street with The Strand. A refresh of the Urban Village brand has been undertaken to support development plans and increase the marketability of new commercial units that will become available.
Last year, we reported on our successful bid for Welsh Government’s Transitional Accommodation Capital Programme (TACP) funds to help provide more permanent homes for people living in temporary accommodation. In addition to the 27 immediately available homes provided through TACP funding in 2022/23, work also started last year on the redevelopment of Porthcawl Hotel to provide an additional 17 new homes in the centre of the town, due for completion in summer 2025.
The sustainability of Coastal services has always been a key consideration in our business planning activity. Last year we published our first Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report, building on the work done in previous years to adopt the SHIFT reporting standard and hold ourselves accountable in our sustainability strategy: ‘All Possible Action’. In preparing the report, we have adopted the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing (SRS) to help us monitor and measure our ESG performance in a transparent, consistent and comparable way.
Coastal is committed to promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion across our services and in the areas where we work. One additional way that we have lived up to this commitment in recent years has been working with artists from under-represented groups, using Coastal sites to provide a public platform for their work to reach a wider audience. We were delighted to be recognised by Arts and Business Cymru for one such collaboration, which won the Arts, Business and Diversity category at its annual awards in July 2024. The winning project - a collaboration with Swansea-based artists Melissa Rodrigues and Joel Morris - was commissioned for Black History Month and celebrated the work of four prominent black British artists in an artwork installed on King’s Lane, Swansea. Coastal was also one of three finalists in the Business of the Year category.
Our Human Resources team were also recognised last year by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) at its awards ceremony in March 2024. The team were highly commended in the Best Change Management Initiative category for their work on redesigning Coastal’s terms and conditions to reflect a hybrid working environment and meet the challenges of a changing employment market post-pandemic.
As 2023 drew to a close, staff from across Coastal came together to support the Mr X appeal. Now in its 64th year, the Mr X appeal organises the collection and distribution of Christmas presents to local children in need, as determined by childcare agencies and social workers. The 2023 appeal distributed gifts to over 8,900 children who may otherwise have had nothing at all. We are delighted that 109 of these gifts came directly from staff at Coastal, coordinated by our Communications and Customer Service Teams.
In addition to the Mr X programme, Coastal also participated in the ‘Everyone Deserves a Christmas’ and 'Everyone Deserves a Summer’ campaigns, organised Carolyn Harris MP, the member of Parliament for Swansea East. These initiatives started as a community response to holiday hunger during the long, summer break but have grown to incorporate the collection and distribution of Christmas hampers to the same communities at risk of food poverty.